Warning: Themes of intolerance towards homosexuals and domestic abuse but not explicit.
"Without me to guide you, you've been slacking off ,haven't you, Vitya?" Scolded Yakov as he, Lilia and Yurio entered the hotel reception in Tokyo. An inexperienced coach would have collapsed from tiredness at having two competitors competing in different countries but Yakov looked fresh as a daisy, even after a 12 hour flight.
" No, no! I have been training, I swear." Jumped back Victor, placing one hand behind his head.
Yakov didn't seem to believe him but it was late, and the ice rink was closing, so there was nowhere he could force Victor to practice the night before the competitions.
" Congratulations on taking the gold in Canada." Yuuri smiled at the younger skater.
" I don't need your support, little piggy." He spat, taking his keycard from the receptionist and marching towards the elevators without another word.
"It's been a while since he's called me that…" If this had been an anime, a large sweat droplet would have appeared at the side of Yuuri's head.
"Yurio is particularly angry today," Observed Victor, bright eyes following the youth as he entered the elevator. "Did he have a lover's quarrel with Thalia?"
" His mother called him after the competitions yesterday." Lilia explained solemnly, her intense eyes following the elevator doors as they closed. "She wasn't appreciative of the press swarming her company in light of the picture's release."
"Ah, good old Natasha, always made me feel all warm inside whenever she was around." Victor said sarcastically, "If she were ever around."
"Yurio is not on good terms with his mother?" Yuri asked, if he was being honest, outside his grandfather Yuuri hadn't heard anything about the youth's family.
"We don't divulge private information on our competitors." Loyally said Yakov, folding his arms.
"Nor his father." Continued to explain Victor, causing Yakov to slap his hand to his forehead, where had he gone so wrong with training Victor? He just didn't listen. "Never cared much for skating although they don't mind paying for his training to keep him quiet but, with a look like that they probably threatened to stop his skating, again."
Yuuri didn't know what to say, Yurio had always seemed like a prodigy, a being born with confidence and enough skill to back him up, he never thought his skating depended so flimsily on the will of his parents. Yuri's own, although somewhat clueless on the sport, had supported him through it all. Yuuri found himself eyeing Victor curiously, he too had never spoken of his family and, in all the skating career, Yuuri could never quite remember any family member ever appearing at a competition.
"That's enough, Vitya." Scolded Lilia, " Rest, the two of you. Focus on your routines for tomorrow."
The first day of the Tokyo Skate went by without a hitch, the audience giving Victor a standing ovation simply for entering the rink, welcoming him back as a competitive skater. The press, too, had eyes only for Victor. When asked how it felt to be back, he'd smiled politely and say that he was both excited and eager to be back on the rink both supporting Yuuri as his coach and a fellow competitor.
It had been a while since Yuuri haf seen Victor smile so much, like a fish returned to its element. The results of the first day were pretty much as expected with Victor's 'Once Upon a December' placing first and Yuri's 'Going the Distance' placing him in third, just below Italy's Michele Crispino (whose sister strangely had been absent from the performance).
"Just focus on landing your jumps today, not adding more quads." Instructed Victor during warm up on the day of the free skate. Yuuri nodded his head in understanding, as he remembered the jump he had missed in the previous performance. "If we stay in the top three we should…"
"Victor!" A loud voice echoed from behind the rink, causing both men to turn and see the young american skater, Leo di Inglese skating towards them.
"Morning." Yuuri greated smiling at the man who was in fourth place in the current rankings.
"I saw the message online, what is this big surprise video that's going to be uploaded today?" The boy asked excitedly.
"Surprise video?" Victor tilted his head, confused.
"Yeah, it says a big mystery video of Victor Nikiforov will be uploaded today during the competitions." Leo explained.
"Oh! Now I'm intrigued!" Admitted Victor.
"Sounds either fake or like bad news to me." Sighed Yuuri, sounding worried but Victor paid him no heed. Instead he raised his hand to his chin in thought.
"I doubt it's a video of my experimental days…" He wondered aloud.
"Now that's not something you'd want anyone to see!"
"Vitya! What are you doing goofing around with your competitors!" Roared Yakov from behind the observers wall. "Start your warm up!"
Warm up ended and the competition began in reverse order of the standings and, with each performance that passed through the rink, the clock ticked closer to 11.
"You've got this!" Whispered Victor, pressing his forehead against Yuuri's. Yuuri's hair had been slicked back as usual and his leotard was a collection of different shades of blue with a speckling of glitter that shone in the light.
"Next is Yuuri Katsuki, 24, from Japan. Yesterday he impressed the judges, will he continue to exceed expectations and overtake his coach, Victor Nikiforov, currently in first place? This is Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No 2."
Yuuri took a deep breath as he lowered his head, his palms upwards as the music began to play. Folding and spreading his arms before him as the deep solemn start of the concerto began and instantly entered a dance sequence. His first jump was a triple axel, which he landed beautifully, a good start to the routine. Followed by a step sequence, his hands rising and falling before him, looking up to the sky, searching for answers that eluded him. Yuuri then nailed a triple flip - triple loop combination accompanied by yet more cheering. In this performance, Victor had focused not only on the jumps, but also on incorporating as many step sequences as possible, something that Yuuri had always prided himself in, only interrupting the flow to perform a triple lutz and ending the sequence in a one- legged spin. Unable to perform a Bielman spin like Yurio, he brought his knee as close to his head as he could before lowering his spin so his whole body had folded upon itself. A brief step sequence followed as the music quieted to almost silence as Yuuri continued to spin.
The second part of the routine was indicated by a change in the tone of the music, to one a little lighter, as if the reasons for the struggle and turmoil had been discovered. He spread his arms as he circled around the diameter of the rink, building up speed for the next jump, a double axel, triple toe loop. He stumbled but quickly adjusted himself, but missed the loop and continued his circuit around the rink, building up speed for a triple salchow which he achieved with a flourish and loud applause. The music intensified as Yuuri moved his arms in time, building up speed, his next jump being a combination triple flip, double loop, double loop. Victor punched the air in excitement, even during training Yuuri's success rate was below acceptable, but Yuuri performed it with an unexpected calmness.
He performed another triple salchow and leapt into a spin, one leg raised 90 degrees and his arm crossed behind his back only to lower his center of gravity to continue into a sitting spin. It was for sequences like this that Yuuri's impressive stamina really shon, even long time champions like Victor would have found difficulty keeping up such a flow in the last part of the routine and have the energy to enter a bizarre, staccato like step sequence, during which Yuuri's blades touched the ice for only the briefest of moments. He swept the tips of his fingers across the ice's surface to finish slightly off center to raging applause.
Yuuri's heart was pounding as he carefully skated to the edge of the rink where Victor was waiting for him. Victor hugged his student in pleasure, "That was beautiful,"
"But the jump!" Yuuri protested.
"We'll have time to correct that for the semifinals." Winked Victor, leading Yuuri to the Kiss and Cry where the presenter soon declared that, not only had Yuuri achieved a personal best, he was currently in first place. Victor's eyes gleamed with pride, he was so happy, even if it were just a little victory he wanted to kiss Yuuri but thought better, remembering what he had told the reporters about abstaining, he really should have double thought his words. It was while they were still in the Kiss and Cry that the clock struck 11 without them realising.
The little screen behind them flickered away from the current standings to instead show a shaky video, like one taken using a camera phone, much to the surprise of everyone in the stadium as, for some reason, it even appeared across the large screens used to show the performers.
The screen was filled with the view of a man in his late sixties, sitting at a kitchen table. He had a stern, unforgiving look with years of manual labour having left their mark in the wrinkles that lined his cold, dark eyes. He appeared almost bold, his hair having thinned and receded to the point that small tufts were all that remained.
Victor jumped to his feet, as if the seat had suddenly electrocuted him, " Otets ?" He whispered, his eyes not leaving the face on the screen.
"Otets?" Yuuri had never heard that name before but there was an underlying terror in the skater's voice. "Who is that?" Begged Yuuri, standing and clasping his fiance's hand, they trembled within his own and they felt icely cold, but Victor could not remove his eyes from the screen as an interview in Russian, but with english subtitles, unfolded before his eyes.
"Could you please state your full name?" The interviewer began, it sounded low and mechanical, like the person was speaking through a mask, distorting his voice.
"Sergey Ivanov." The men answered, coughing heavily as he answered.
"And what is your relationship to Victor Nikiforov?"
The man paused before spitting in disgust, "I am his father."
Gasps of surprise spread across the audience as Victor's face paled. Yuuri tried to capture his attention, to force him to look away from the screen. Victor had never spoken about his family before about his life before winning the junior championship. Yuuri had always wondered but never asked and, as the colour drained from Victor's face, he was glad he never had.
"Shut it off!" Yelled Yuuri to the reporters that were standing, agawk, before the screen.
"They can't!" Yelled Yakov, running to the Kiss and Cry, pushing people away, "They say it has been hacked from the outside, security is trying to regain control but until then…"
Yuuri cupped Victor's face within his hands. "Victor look at me." He began, trying to make him look away.
"To confirm, you mean Victor Nikiforov, the champion ice skater?" The interviewer continued.
"Yes." The man spat again.
"So why does he go by Nikiforov?"
"Because he is no man, not man enough to use the name my father gave me." The man explained cruelly. " Shameful! He dances like a woman, wears dresses and makeup as women do. He also loves men as women do..."
"Victor, please look at me." Yuuri shouted, he could see it in his eyes, an indescribable terror and, for those few minutes, Victor felt like that boy once again, the boy that had cowered in his room as his father hurt his mother and he could do nothing to stop him.
"Vitya! Please look at me!" Yelled Yuuri, using the name Victor had alway wanted him to use. It distracted him just enough for his eyes to dart from the screen to the distressed Yuuri, tears threatening to spill from his eyes. That had caught his attention, even if it was just for a brief moment, but Yuuri was determined to keep it, to stop him from returning to that place of horror Yuuri couldn't reach. And, with Victor's face still cupped in his hands, Yuuri kissed him, begging Victor not to fall back to whatever had frightened him so, allowing his lips to send the message Victor's ears refused to hear- that Yuuri loved him, that Yuuri was there besides, that Victor was not alone in whatever terror he was reliving.
In the control room, the panicked security did the only thing they could do. They had never prepared for the possibility of the competition's system being hacked, it was a figure skating contest, they had assumed the biggest issue they'd have to deal with was crowd control! However, in-light of the distressing video that plagued their screens they did the one thing they could, they plunged the stadium into darkness, terminating the video from the screens along with the rest of the electricity.
But the rest of the world continued to watch in horrified silence, finally understanding why, until that moment, Victor Nikiforov had avoided ever mentioning his father.
In the hotel not far from the ice rink, a mobile phone had been left behind, the interview still playing. But it was not the contents of the interview that had forced Yurio to run to the ice rink where Victor and Yurio were, he had noticed something the others had yet not. In the corner, so faint it was barely a watermark was a single word, telling everyone just who had uploaded the video.
N.E.K.O